South Korea announced plans on Monday to compensate victims of Japan\u2019s forced wartime labour, aiming to end a \u201cvicious cycle\u201d in the Asian powers\u2019 relations and boost ties to counter the nuclear-armed North.
\nJapan and the United States immediately welcomed the announcement, but victims\u2019 groups said it fell far short of their demand for a full apology from Tokyo and direct compensation from the Japanese companies involved.
\nSeoul and Tokyo have ramped up security cooperation in the face of growing threats from Kim Jong Un\u2019s North Korea, which is expanding its nuclear weapons programme in defiance of UN sanctions.
\nBut Seoul-Tokyo ties have long been strained over Tokyo\u2019s brutal 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean peninsula, when around 780,000 Koreans were conscripted into forced labour by Japan, according to data from Seoul.
\nThis does not include the Korean women forced into sexual slavery by Japanese troops.
\nSeoul\u2019s plan is to take money from major South Korean companies that benefited from a 1965 reparations deal with Tokyo and use it to compensate victims and their families, Foreign Minister Park Jin said.
\nThe hope is that Japan will \u201cpositively respond to our major decision today with Japanese companies\u2019 voluntary contributions and a comprehensive apology\u201d, he added.
\n\u201cI believe that the vicious cycle should be broken for the sake of national interest,\u201d Park added.
\nJapanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi welcomed the new plan, telling reporters it would help to restore \u201chealthy\u201d ties.
\nThe plan does not include a fresh apology, although Hayashi said Tokyo stands by a 1998 declaration that included an apology.
\nThe two sides quickly moved to ease trade disputes linked to a raft of tit-for-tat economic measures imposed as relations soured after a 2018 South Korean Supreme Court ruling ordered some Japanese companies to pay compensation.
\nAnd Japanese media have reported that South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol could soon visit Tokyo, possibly even for a Japan-South Korea baseball game this week.
\nBut it remained unclear whether Japanese companies, including those such as Nippon Steel which were named in the 2018 court ruling, would make voluntary contributions to the new fund.
\nNippon Steel said it had no comment on the ruling, adding that \u201cour company\u2019s understanding is that this issue has been resolved by the 1965 Agreement\u201d.
\n\u2018What Japan does next\u2019
\nUS President Joe Biden hailed \u201ca groundbreaking new chapter of cooperation and partnership between two of the United States\u2019 closest allies\u201d.
\n\u201cPresident Yoon and Prime Minister Kishida are taking a critical step to forge a future for the Korean and Japanese people that is safer, more secure, and more prosperous,\u201d he said in a White House statement.
\nBut analysts were more cautious.
\n\u201cThe significance of today\u2019s announcement will be measured in large part by what Japan does next,\u201d Benjamin A. Engel, research professor at the Institute of International Affairs at Seoul National University, told AFP.
\nAt a minimum, some kind of apology from Tokyo and donations from two Japanese companies which have been ruled liable by South Korea\u2019s Supreme Court would help ensure the public accepts the deal, he said.
\n\u201cWithout these steps by the Japanese side, the announcement by the Korean government will not amount to much,\u201d he said.
\nThe move to resolve the forced-labour issue follows years of disputes over World War II sex slaves, which had soured Japan-South Korea ties.
\nSeoul and Tokyo reached a deal in 2015 aimed at \u201cfinally and irreversibly\u201d resolving that issue, with a Japanese apology and the formation of a one-billion-yen ($7.4 million) fund for survivors.
\nBut South Korea later effectively nullified that deal, citing a lack of victims\u2019 consent, which led to a bitter diplomatic dispute that spread to affect trade and security ties.
\nNorth Korean threat
\nSouth Korean foreign minister Park said the plan announced on Monday had the support of many victims\u2019 families, adding Seoul would \u201csee them one by one and consult with them and seek their understanding sincerely\u201d.
\nBut the plan had already drawn strong protests from victims\u2019 groups.
\n\u201cIt is as if the bonds of the victims of forced labour are being dissolved through South Korean companies\u2019 money,\u201d Lim Jae-sung, a lawyer for several victims, said in a Facebook post on Sunday.
\n\u201cIt is a complete victory for Japan, which can\u2019t spare even one yen on the issue of forced labour.\u201d
\nAfter the plan was announced, victim Yang Geum-deok also immediately denounced it.
\n\u201cI won\u2019t take money that seems like the result of begging,\u201d Yang said, according to the Yonhap news agency.
\n\u201cYou must apologise first and then work through everything else. \u201c<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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